Here we are, the state of hipsters, food carts and assisted suicide, maybe the least churched state in the country, culturally legendary as the place where highly educated young people go to retire, the state where we can't even be bothered to bicycle our ballots to the polling place, but just drop them in the mail. Swing states have Las Vegas and Miami police shows, we have "Portlandia."

The GrangeTV ad for The Grange, which doesn't even attack anybody.

You could see why on this year's ballot, when decent, hardworking states are agonizing over Obama and Romney and the future of working for a living, we're voting on more gambling and more marijuana.

Except it seems they're both losing.

According to a new Survey USA poll conducted for KATU, Measure 80 to legalize marijuana is trailing 37 percent to 41 percent, a discouraging showing even if you think supporters were busy getting their medical marijuana cards renewed. Measure 82, allowing privately owned casinos, is losing 27 percent to 43 percent, despite the kind of massive TV campaign that in right-thinking states would be dedicated to saying scurrilous things about a Senate candidate.

Apparently, Oregonians may accept gambling and marijuana as pastimes, but have doubts about them as state economic strategies.

For true wild and craziness, we may be reduced to cherishing our role in "Animal House."